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D3: Russian Revolution
Russia before 1881:
Geography of Russia (before 1881)
-Russia was a vast empire
-Many frozen land/ cold areas
-Small amount of land good for cultivation of food
-Very diverse landscape
-Nomads live in Russia
-Diverse population, about ½ were actually Russian, other half made up of
minorities like Ukrainians, Poles
Tsar, dictatorship of Russia, leader of Autocracy (controlled by one man),
effectively a king, answers only to God
...
5%
Upper class: 17%
Middle class: 1
...
The Tsar was seen
as the head of the church and the chairman of the Synod)
Challenges to Tsarist rule in 1860's Russia:
-Difficulties in population diversity (different beliefs, cultures, religions)
-Small scale fighting between ethnic groups
-Intermediate food shortages, population growing rapidly
-Autocracies seen as antiquated
-Not prepared to industrialize, peasants are 80% of population, too many
limiting factors to move towards an industrial society

The legacy of Tsar Liberator Alexander II 1855-1881:
-In 1861, issued an Imperial decree which abolished serfdom
...

-However, serfs not totally free, they were tied up in the land, and had to pay
redemption tax to the Russian government for the next 49 years so that the
landowners could be paid back for loss of labour
...

-In 1864, the Tsar introduced the first form of elective government made up of

the educated and wealthy, known as the Zemstva
...

-In 1870, this extended to towns and cities, first ever elective government,
element of choice
...
This allowed ordinary Russians to help dispense justice,
whereas before it had been presided over by the Tsars officials
...

Mirs:
-Not allowed to leave without the elders permission, tied to farming en masse,
no progress made in industrialization, but also restricted migration of workers
to towns
...

- “Better to abolish serfdom from above then wait for a time when it will
begin to abolish itself from below
...
They hedged them
round with complex restrictions thus protecting those outside the monopoly
from challenging it
-State and private banks, unstable, difficult to raise capital in form of bank notes
-Reliance on slave labour, no interest to invest in machinery
-Absence of middle class and the distance of upper class meant no real group
had an interest in entrenching itself in business
-The cost of transporting goods was very high
-Coal and iron ore often a long way from the centres of the population
...

-But the rise in expectations was dashed by the restrictions out on the freed
serfs and the modest political social reforms
...

-In 1869, two Russian writers published the book “Catechism of a
Revolutionary”
-The book impacted greatly on young Russians and in 1876 the group Land and
Liberty were formed
...

-The group split in two over the issues of terrorism or propaganda, for terrorism
was “The People's Will”, for propaganda was “The Black Repartition”
-People's Will tried to assassinate Alexander II many times, before finally
killing him in the infamous double bomb carriage attack
...
One radical who was executed was Aleksandr Ulyanov, and
he was Lenin's big brother
...

-Anti Jewish pogroms and legislation came into play
-Police brutality and the suppression of liberties came back into full force after
experiencing some restraint under the reign of Alexander the II
...

-Alexander the III was now put on the throne, and he was a truly repressive Tsar

Challenges Alexander III faced:
-Suddenly became leader of a huge country owning ¼ of the world's land
system
...

-AIII faced great pressure from his advisers to change like the rest of the West
and central Europe, known as “Westerners”
...

-The assassination of his father appalled AIII, and in 1881 when became Tsar,
he made it known that he did not like the modernisation politics, and launched
Russia on a return to conservatism
...

-Challenge of multi-ethnic empire, demographic challenge
...
g People's Will, necessary to make an example
of them
-Inexperience, not ready quite yet to rule the Empire, too immature
...


Alexander the III reign (1881-1894):
-Replace liberal ministers with Konstatin Pobedenstov, Chief Procurator of the
Holy Synod
...

-Pobedenstov believed the basis of political and social stability lay in support
for autocracy, the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian nationalism
...

-Those committed faced possible execution, and thousands were sentenced to
labour camps in Siberia
...

-Press freedom became severely restricted, with 14 major newspapers being
banned between 1882-1889 for displaying “liberal tendencies”
...

-University fees excluded all but the wealthy, and in 1884 the universities lost
their own control, and went under the control of the government
...

-Pobedenstov began to undo many of the reforms AII put in place
...
Land captains were members of the
landed classes, and directly appointed by the Minister of the Interior
...
To ensure landed
classes had the most political power, doctors and school-teachers as an example
could no longer seek election
...

-Podedenstov put all Zemstva primary schools under church control, passed
legislation so that the sons of peasants and workers could not go to secondary
school, keep peasants in their class, keep a clear divide
...

-AIII to get over the problem of a multi-ethnic empire, adopted a policy of
Russification, 1885 the official language of Russia became Russian, all other
languages were banned in school
...
Such
was intensity in 1890's, that thousands of Jews fled Russia to start new lives
...

-Created more radicals to fight the Tsar's repressive regime
...
In 1882, he introduced laws which
reduced the tax burden on peasants, and established a peasant land bank, which
allowed them to take out laws and be productive
...

-Ivan offered financial increase to go to migrate in Siberia
...

-Vyshengransky began to finance Russia's economy with foreign loans
...
These loans came from Britain and France
...


Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918):
-October 1894, AIII died at the age of 49 of kidney failure, and his son, NII
became Tsar
...

-His only advisor he could really turn to was Pobedenstov, who gave him a very
narrow and conservative view of the vast empire ran under his control
...

-Shy, quiet person, eventually dominated by his wife
...

-Four daughters and a son, Alexis, who suffered from haemophilia
...
Rather than stay and help like he
intended to, he was forced to keep his meeting with the French ambassador, and
many opinions of hatred were formed from there on
...
Tied to
agricultural grain production, system seen as a major obstacle to economic
development
...

-Count Sergei Witte (1849-1915) was the finance minster after Vyshengransky
...

-Unusual as he was sympathetic to the aims of the business class
...

-Foundation fro growth lay by Bunge and Vyshengransky
...

What impact did Witte's system have:
-Coal, iron and oil production rose
-Trans Siberian railway, much work done to it, almost finished, covers vast
distances, exploit Siberia, helped the influence of Russia of the Far East
...
Petersburg, Moscow and Baku and

Ukraine, with much of it centred in large factories
...

-Successful development allowed Russia to exploit the vast natural resources of
Siberia, developed it's military power due to capital goods also being used for
military production
...

-This created social unrest with the Tsar, as shows with the workers strike at
Putilov engineering, which was the beginning of the 1905 revolution, shared
political ideas
...

The Witte plan:
-Development sponsored and directed by the government, placing emphasis on
the production of capital goods such as iron, steel and machinery
...

-Taxies levied on peasants, who were already overtaxed
...
9
0
...
9
36
1916
33
...
72
9
...
It's aim
was largely successful, but penalised consumers at home who had to pay traders
who had raised the price to keep pace with the investment rate of the rouble
...

-In giving priority to heavy industry, he neglected vital light engineering areas,
such as machine tool production, which would of helped modernise
manufacturing
...

-By 1900, a trade recession internationally set in, which effected the Russians
severely, and this caused unrest
...


Development of Radical parties:
Marxist view of political development:
1
...

2
...

3
...

Communism !!!
Tradition of Radicalism:
-Forerunner of radical parties was the Populist (Nardovik) movement of the
1860/70s
...

-Believed that in this new peasant society, strong central government would
fade away
...
He spread his ideas in a
periodical called “The Bell”, which was printed abroad and then smuggled in
...

-There were attempts to spread ideas amongst the peasantry, but this failed as
many of them were arrested and imprisoned
...

-Populists eventually led to the forming of 2 parties: The Social Democratic
party in 1898 and the Social Revolutionary party in 1901
...

-Attempted to broaden the appeal of the party by winning over industrial
workers
-Believed both peasants and workers were the key, promised them their own
land with no compensation pay
-Never a strongly knit group, contained a variety of factions, including a
terrorist group similar to the People's Will, which killed many leading Tsarist
members between 1901-1905, including the Tsar's uncle Grand duke Sergai
...

-SR was important in the 1905 revolution with support for peasant uprisings
...

-At the 1st congress in 1906, it called again for peasant ownership, it's most
popular policy
...

The Social Democrat (SD) party:
-Although the SR's were large in number, the creation of the SD party in Minsk
in 1898 was more important
...

-Industrial development is the key for Marxism to succeed, to the SD's, Witte's
policies were good
...

The split between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks:
-A leading member SD who highlighted how the party differed from the SR's
was Vladmir Illyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin
...

-Marx's ideas were that historical development could be studied scientifically
and predicted through his model of society and economic conflict
...

-Dialectic, violent struggle in nature and societies between opposites
...

-The main culprit of the split was Lenin, who wanted to limit membership for
dedicated revolutionaries who would lead a workers revolution
...

-Although Lenin's ideas originally lost by 28 votes to 22, he got congress to
accept his view after the Jewish Bund faction (General Jewish Labour Union)
left, and he then won the votes 17 to 5
...
In reality, the Mensheviks
outnumbered the Bolsheviks
...

-When Communist Russia was later created by Lenin, it was a socialist republic
of industrial workers and poorer peasants
...
Increase of burden of debt for peasants fuels resentment
...

-Poor working conditions, rush of workers into industrial cities lead to intense
strain on the infrastructure, poor sanitation leads to social unrest
...

-Widespread dislike of the Tsarism, Nicholas II great disappointment
...

-Marxism philosophy is becoming popular in Russia with the educated
intellegia and the industrial workers
...


1905 Revolution:
Why did it happen:
-Took place due to a number of social, economic and political factors in Russia
...

-Meanwhile, industrial workers wanted an 8 hour working day, higher pay and
an end to forced overtime
...

-SR wanted to give political power to the peasants, SD's wanted to create a
completely new society which gave power to the workers and peasants and
liberal groups wanted to share power and to introduce reforms
...
Between 1904-1905, the two sides fought before Russia suffered a
crushing defeat and was forced to give up their Port Arthur in North China
...
Biggest military humiliation was 27th May 1905, Battle of Tsuchima, lost 25/35
of its warship fleet
...

-Bloody Sunday: Peaceful demonstration outside the Tsar's winter palace,
guards fired and killed around 1000 people
...
Father George Gapon, a Russian Orthodox
priest led the demonstration, who was later hanged by the SR party for being a
double agent for the Okhrana
...
7 million workers had been on strike
...

-Strikers set up Soviets (workers councils) to co-ordinate strikes, most
successful strike in Russia so far as the whole of society was paralysed
...

-Jacqueries, peasants attacking government officials and destroying government
records of land ownership
...
Mutinies were not
widespread, but their publicity helped to undermine the Tsar's authority
...

-Georgia demanded itself an independent state, the Poles demanded autonomy
and the Jews pressed for Civil rights
-St
...

Work was organising strikes and supplying striking workers with food
...

-Although closed down, showed that workers were capable of challenging the
government in an organised way
...
On 5th December a
general strike took place in Moscow, but by the 7th December it was an armed
uprising
...
By 18th December,
around 1000 people dead, many parts of the city ruined and revolutionaries,
including many Bolsheviks, surrendered- END OF REVOLUTION
...

-Issued the October Manifesto, promised reforms such as the proposal of a
national parliament be formed
...

-Pleased Liberal groups became Octoberists
...

-More radical groups such as Mensheviks, Bolsheviks and SR's wanted more
major social and economic changes as well
...


Why did the revolution come to an end:
-Loyalty of the armed forces, majority of the armed forces stayed loyal to the
Tsar, demonstrations were crushed and arrested thousands of revolutionaries
...
Many leaders
(like Lenin and Trotsky) left the country for safety
...

-Lack of unity amongst revolutionaries meant that the police could suppress
them one-by-one
...
Petersburg soviet had little power over the strikes in 1905,
and was closed down later and their leaders arrested
...

SR: Wanted peasant ownership of land
...

-October manifesto split them e
...

Consequences of the 1905 revolution:
-Peasant tax would drop, effective in November, pacification
...
Tsar issued it,
and became constitution of the Russian Empire, creating a national parliament,
with the lower-house Duma and the upper-house Council of State
...

-Council of State: Partly elected and partly nominated by the Tsar
...

-Minorities, easy for revolutionaries to expand due to harsh treatment
/repression
...
g doctors, teachers, officials
...
At the end of the 19th century, attempts
were made to create a national organisation for the Zemstva
...
Shipow
the chairman of the Moscow Zemstavo, was able to convince the minister of the
interior to create a Zemstva across Western Russia
...
In
1904, these liberals founded the “Union of Liberation”
...
This group became “Octoberists”, and
supported Nicholas II, as they believed it was the best thing for Russia's
constitutional development
...
Saw October manifesto as the beginning, not the end, of
political reform
...

-Kadet Programme:
1
...
All-Russian constituent assembly
3
...
Abolition of land repayments
5
...
Equal and full rights for all citizens

Repression and reform:
Stolypin's repression:
-Wave of repression from the failure of the 1905 revolution associated with one
man-Peter Stolypin (1862-1911) who was chairman of the council of ministers
...
Assassinated by an SR while visiting Kiev in 1911
...

-Peasant unrest continued between 1906-1907
...
Stolypin used field court marshals, 1144 death
sentences were handed out between October 1906 and May 1907
...

-He also convicted many to political crimes, many of which were either sent to
labour camps or death
...


Stolypin's reforms:
-9th November 1906, decree gives freedom to peasants, land banks provide
loans for peasants to leave their communal forms
...

-Siberian expansion, cheap land and loans, foundation of the Independent
Russian Peasant Class
...

-Agricultural output rise: 45 million tonnes in 1906, 62 million tonnes in 1917
...

-The Vyborg Manifesto Resistance members of the Duma banned from
standing for the next elections
...

-Tax returns show a growing minority of peasants are paying taxes
...

-Policy to provide universal primary education for all
...

-Improvements are made in the armed forces and the navy
...

-Understanding Stolypin had with the Octoberists in the 3rd Duma allowed him
to pursue his own goals
...

1st Duma: got a loan from France, and had a Lower house at State council
which could veto the Lower house
...
After this, 200 Kadet and Labourist
deputies reassembled at Vyborg in Finland and drew up “The Appeal”, urging
the Russian people to refuse to pay taxes and to disobey conscription orders
...

2nd Duma: February-June 1907, due to no Vyborg involved Kadets held ½ of
the seats
...
Despite different
aims, the Duma was very hostile towards the government
...
As such, the Duma was accused of subversion and
was dissolved
...
Some of the bills it approved were social reform measures that included
setting up schools for the children of the poor and national insurance for
industrial workers
...

4th Duma: November 1912-August 1914, continually asked questions and did
some progressive work on state welfare and wasn't afraid to criticize the
government
...

-Due to this, the number of political strikes rose from 24 in 1911 to 2401 in
1914
...

-Liberals were also infuriated, believed the Tsar to be uncorrupted, and hated
the zero progress which had been made
...
The Tsar was not willing to give
this
...


Russia and WWI:
Germany/Austria-Hungary in 1914:
-By 1880, Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck had unified Germany into a
federation of 22 European kingdoms of principalities, largest of which was
Prussia
...
Kaiser was jealous of Bismarck, and in
1890 was able to force him from power
...
Other
industries, such as steel, engineering and armaments had also grown rapidly
...
Its statute included universal mass conscription for
short term military service followed by a larger force in reserve
...

-The union between Austria and Hungary took place in 1867, and it had a large
mix in it's empire of ethnicity, including Poles, Czechs and Slovak
...
This
later became the “Triple Alliance” in 1882 when Italy joined them
...

-When WWI broke out in August 1914, the industrial unrest ended as the
country united behind the Tsar and the government in a patriotic sense
...

-Rasputin, who influenced the Tsarina as her new advisor, made the Tsar
family became increasingly unpopular
...

-When units were diverted from France to the Eastern Front, the Russian
advance was halted in September at the Battle of Tannenburg, in which
German generals Hidenburg and Ludendorf won a crushing victory over the
Russian generals Rennenkopf and Sansonov (shot himself rather than tell the
Tsar)
...
Only around 10,000 managed to escape
...

-Near the end of September, the Russians also captured the Austria-Hungary
fortress town of Przemysl and 10,000 prisoners after 4 months
...

-This was followed by the complete pushing out of Russia from Russian Poland
by the successful Austria-Hungary Gorlice-Tarnow offensive in July 1915
...

-Tsarina Alexandra left to the running of the government and administration
...

Brusilov offensive primarily failed because Nicholas II was a poor Commanderin-chief and the Russian army had poor internal communications which led to
shortages and equipment not arriving at the front
...
6 million soldiers, 3
...
4 million had been
taken prisoner
...

WWI and the Russian home front:
-In order to support such a large army, the Russia State had to increasingly use
the National budget between 1913 and 1916, financed out higher taxes and
borrowed loans from Britain and France
...

-Got rid of the Gold standard, meant that the value of money was not that
strong, couldn't increase very easily
...
Moscow 1914 received
around 2200 railway wagons a month, but in Christmas 1916 received down to
around 300 wagons a month
...

-Huge loss of life and military humiliation undermined domestic support for the
war
...

-In July 1915, a Central War Industrial Committee was created to help

stimulate the production of weapons and ammunition
...

-However, while these organisations were highly successful, the Tsar's
government (being an autocracy) didn't know how to use these groups and
political parties to aid the war effort effectively
...

The Progressive Bloc:
-Angry at their unproductive effort in the war effort, 231/422 of the State Duma
deputies formed themselves into a “Progressive Bloc”, comprising mainly of
Kadets, Octoberists and Progressivists
...
The Progressive Bloc was the centre of
political opposition
...
As such, ministers who campaigned for reform
either resigned of were dismissed when Nicholas went to the Front in
September 1915
...
She only put forward ultra-conservative
Tsarists in ministerial positions, and this made the Tsar and government less
popular
...

-By 1914, Rasputin was a regular and significant member of the court and
especially a personal confident of the Tsarina
...
Also, between September 1915 and 1916, there were many
ministerial changes, many influenced by Rasputin
...

-By December 1916, the only political change came from a group of nobles
who murdered Rasputin, who hoped his death would aid the war effort
...


The 1917 February revolution:
Background:
-By January 1917, although the Tsar and Tsarina were unpopular, no political
party was going to overthrow them, and the Progressive Bloc had acted out
staging a coup
...

-St
...

-A general unrest and anger in Petrogard but this was not led or directed
...

Timeline:
4th Jan: Strike to commemorate Bloody Sunday in Petrograd; strikes in other
cities
...

14th Feb: 100,000 workers strike in Petrograd
...

19th Feb: Petrograd authorities announce that bread will be rationed on the 1 st
March onwards, leading to panic buying
...

24th Feb: Strikes grow larger, small numbers of Soviets begin to form
...

26th Feb: The Tsar orders use of military force to break the strike
...

State Duma suspended
...
State Duma refuses to disband, and instead forms a 12-man
government which will later make up the Provisional government
...

1st March: Petrograd Soviet issues “Order no
...

2nd March: Tsar abdicates on behalf of himself and his son (technically illegal)
in order to help both war and peace
...

March-April: February revolution spreads over Russia with mini Duma's
(public committees) taking control of official, government and public matters,
while workers and Soviets create parallel Soviets
...
Mensheviks set up Petrograd Soviet
...

Character of the revolution:
-Not a revolution from below, Tsarist's own supporters
-Bolsheviks played no particular
-Revolution started by Tsar's traditional supporters
-A failure of leadership at the top
-Revolution of one city, Petrograd
-Not a result of social/political movement but a consequence of war
-A crisis of the institution ?

The Provisional Government:
Provisional government and Soviets:
-Interior government which was to rule Russia until such a time that a
constitution could be drawn up
...

-Neither Menshevik or Bolshevik factions of the Social Democrats or the
Social Revolutionaries
...

-Like the Provisional Government, the All-Russian Soviet claimed the right to
make laws, one law it made was “Order no
...

-From February to October 1917 the Provisional Government shared political
power with the Soviets, with major areas of policy having to be agreed upon by
both, example 6 members of the Soviet in government
...

-Provisional government: Liberal Soviets: Left wing, SD's, SR's
-By October 1917, the dominant SD group in the Soviet was the Bolsheviks
...
1 also meant that the Provisional Government would only be
recognized if the Soviets agreed, giving them essentially power over the army
...

-In the middle of a bloody, expensive conflict and economic crisis
...
G:
-When it took power, valued by Western Allies, Britain and France, to them this
would be a democratic regime
...

-Provisional Government reforms include:
1
...
Abolition of the Okhrana, the secret police
3
...
Religious freedom
5
...

P
...

-Russia owed Britain and France large amounts of foreign loans, so couldn't
pull out without a major economic crisis
...

-Loss of territory in Poland and Western Russia
...
P
...

-Failure of the June Offensive (a planned offensive on Austria-hungary to win
the support of the country) results in a wave of desertions, Bolsheviks
undermined this by encouraging the desertions
...
G under Prince Lyov did not survive
...


Crisis in the countryside:
-P
...

-Peasants took the law into their own hands, took land for themselves from
land-owners and redistributed it amongst themselves
...

-In June 1917, the P
...

-After the June Offensive, peasant soldiers also returned from the Front and
helped the process of land redistribution
...
No system of government or administration
in the countryside, and the P
...


The Return of Lenin:
Lenin's return:
-Returned to Russia via German transportation to contribute in the revolution in
April 1917
...

-Faced with many problems, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were exiled outside of
Russia after being accused of being German spies, and hunted down by the
Okhrana when inside
...

-Imperialism the Highest state of Capitalism (1916), Marxist explanation of
WWI
...
G, and this was later published in the Bolshevik newspaper
Pravda (truth) as the April Thesis, speech done on the 3rd April 1917
...
G
...

-Convinced the Soviets that political power should be theirs, as the P
...

The April Thesis, 7th April 1913:
-The war is a greedy one and should end immediately
...

-No support for the P
...

-Masses must see Soviet as the only possible form of revolutionary government
...
The salaries of officials must be
equal to that of workers
...

-Mass propaganda to win over poor peasants and workers
...

-All production of goods to come under Soviet control
...

First steps:
-The rallying cries “Bread, land and peace” and “All Power to the Soviets”
were designed to win support for the Bolsheviks with the Russian population
...
G's issue with not only dealing with the war, but also
land and food shortages, and that the P
...

-Lenin suggested a intentional organisation to bolster Bolsheviks international
credibility, and also believed that a socialist revolution in Russia would spark a
worldwide revolution
...
G via
mass demonstrators, but few workers joined in and were easily dispersed by the
police
...


The July Days and the Kornilov Affair:
The July days:
-Lenin used the failure in the June offensive in 1917 to bid for power,
unpopular after the war
...

-Bolshevik figures rose from 25,000 to over 75,000
...
G authority-some soldiers join
the Bolsheviks
...

Monday the 2nd July: In the people's house in central Petrograd, a regimental
concert was staged for soldiers leaving the Front, but it quickly turned into an
anti government rally with demands that political power should go to the
Soviets, and also the troops formed a Provisional Revolutionary Committee to
campaign against the government
...
However, these disruptions
brought both the P
...

Wednesday the 4th July: Bolsheviks supported and riled up more
demonstrators through their seats on factory committees, and these continued
throughout the day and clashed with the police
...

Thursday the 5th July: The P
...
In
the aftermath, the Bolshevik party called off its demonstrations
...

Saturday the 7h July: In the morning, a large force of loyal troops along with 8
armoured cars and artillery surrounded the Bolshevik HQ at Kshesinskaia
mansion, and the 500 Bolsheviks inside surrendered and were arrested
...

-The July Days were a major setback in his attempt to overthrow the
provisional government, instead uniting it further with the Soviet, and Lenin
was now accused of being a German spy, which was furthered as he had relied
on the Germans to get back to Russia
...

-In Finland, Lenin writes The State and the Revolution, a book in which he
almost gives up the idea of a revolution in the near future
...

-On 18th July, Brusilov was dismissed as Commander-in-chief of the army after
the failed June offensive
...

-In October 1917, he became a general in the White army, and was killed in

action in the Civil War
...
G was the “Kornilov Affair”
...

-Kornilov was actually loyal to the government, and was more concerned with a
radical left-wing plot, along the same lines as the “July Days”
...

-Kerensky ordered for the arrest of Kornilov, and armed workers, most of
whom were Bolsheviks, and released and armed many Bolshevik prisoners to
fight back, and as such Kornilov got to Petrograd
...
G loom very weak, and all
their support fell while support for the All-Russian Soviet increased, with the
people who benefited the most from this being the Bolsheviks
...

-By September, the Bolsheviks gained control of Petrograd Soviet and had
rebuilt themselves ready for their rise to power
...

-Through cleverly devised slogans, the Bolsheviks party had risen to 200,000
members with the party producing 41 different newspapers across Russia
...

-On 9th August, the P
...
Elections would be on the 12 November and the
opening session would be on the 28th November
...

-After his return to Petrograd, Lenin suggested that all power be handed over to
the All-Russian Soviet, where the Bolsheviks had a large majority of seats in
the Petrograd Soviet
...
G continued to be unpopular, while the All-Russian Soviet became one
national institution which retained the respect of the population
...

Lenin was able to persuade them bar 2 leading Bolsheviks, Kamanev and
Zinoviev, who opposed the move
...

-Lenin helped to hide the Bolsheviks influence by handing over the planning to
the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet
...
Trostky, using his influence, became one
of the “Troika” (a member of the 3-man team who ran the MRC)
...

-Kerensky also tried to create a “Pre-Parliment”, a group to advise the
government
...
G's power
...

The takeover:
-On the 24th October, the PG attempted to close down the Bolshevik
newspapers, Prazda and Izvestia, and attempted to round up leading Bolsheviks
...
He planned the takeover of the capital on the eve of the Second congress
of the All-Russian Soviet on the 26th October, and would do so through the
MRC
...

-On the evening of the 24th October, the MRC units and Red Guard occupy key
areas of Petrograd
...
The members of the P
...

-The P
...
G's aid previously did not come to help now
...

-Many P
...

-On the 25th October, the MRC caused the revolution to be a success
...

-On the 26th October, Lenin announced that the All-Russian Soviet had
overthrown the P
...
The 390 Bolshevik representatives in the All-Russian
Soviet accepted Lenin's actions, and the Mensheviks only had 80 seats and the
SR's only 180
...
Mensheviks/SR's left, as they believed it to be just a Bolshevik coup
...
G weakness:
-Never intended to permanent, never had a long-term rule plan
...

-Internal divisions led to economic crisis/no strong actions taken
...

-Failure to solve Land problem
...

-Low morale amongst the people, disbelief in the government
...

Bolshevik strength:
-Strong sense of purpose, very committed to Lenin/revolution
...

-Lack of political system development in Russia, became a question of who
could exert power on whom ?
-Lenin's leadership, strong and committed leader with a clear vision
...

-Trotsky's organisation allowed operation to go smoothly with little problems
...

Revolution of all or the work of a few:
All:
-Deep unpopularity in P
...
G
-Only White Army resists later on

Few:
-Elite force of R
...

-Peasants had seized land across the country
...

-Unemployment and inflation continue to rise
...

-Strong support in Petrograd and Moscow, but not so much across the country,
only had ¼ of the votes in the Russian electorate
...

-Transport system was crippled
...

Government Structure:
Sovnarkom (Concil of People's Commissars,
Lenin was the chair, most f the members were Bolsheviks)
Appointed by
All-Russian Congress of Soviets
(The Bolsheviks held a majority)
Elected by
Local Soviets (from village, cities and districts)
-Since 1917 with the fall of Tsardom, traditional forms of government had
broken down
...
g they were in a
position to make up their own rules and not be halted by democracy
...

-It was Lenin's direction that provided the members of the government, the
Sovnarkom because of this was a wing of the Bolsheviks
...

-In practice, the pyramid of power was revered, Congress and Local parties did
as they were told, according to Lenin's ideas of Democratic centralization
...

-Bolsheviks control new radical policies put in place, but Lenin argued their
influence existed over Moscow and Petrograd, and needed to improve military
and political control before doing so
...

-Immediately after coming to power, two new law measures were passed
...

-Lenin wanted them on side, “Land to the Peasants”, recognized their takeover
...

The Decree on Workers Control:
-This decree recognised the workers takeover, as in 1917 a large number of
factories had been taken over by workers
...

-Decree insisted that the worker's committees maintain order and discipline in
the workplace
...

Regardless of this, the Bolsheviks pressed on with their plans to establish the
framework of state direction in the economy
...

-Although it was unable to exercise full authority, it did play a key role in some
important measures:
1
...

2
...

3
...

Creation of the Cheka 1917:
-Lenin wanted to impose Bolshevik rule and oppress political opposition
...

-Main instrument in which Lenin and his successors terrorized the Russian
people into subservience and conformity
...

-Despite the atrocities they committed, no attempt was made to limit their
power, and they continued to wage their “class war”
...
G
...
G, and Lenin felt too
weak not to run in it, and found:
1
...

2
...

3
...

-On the 5th January 1918, the Constituent Assembly met for the first time
...

-As such, Red Guard and armed troops loyal to Lenin dissolved the Assembly,
seen as the end of any hope of democracy in Communist Russia, and would not
have any until another 70 years
...

-The Bolsheviks were able to do this because their main political opposition
was divided on what to do
...

-Mensheviks were also split between following Fedor Dan and Julius Martov
and only in May 1918 did they reunite, but by then it was too late
...

-Bolsheviks visualised it would be a better option for peace, as they could
regain their lost land if Germany lost against their Western Allies
...

-Trotsky took a middle stance, believed Russia couldn't win, but if they held out

long enough German/Austrian mutinies would make it collapse in on itself
...

-Despite dispute tactics at talks, in the end the Russians signed the Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk on 3rd May 1918, after Lenin won a majority by one to do so
...
Lost 1/3 of its European lands, including Estonia, Poland and Ukraine
...
Along with 45 million people
...
Russia had to pay 3 billion roubles in reparations
...
Loss of 1/3 of agricultural land
...
Over ½ of it's industry
...
He was aiming for an
international Communist revolution, so the crippling terms of the treaty was
small compared to the great sweep of the revolution
...


Russian Civil War (1918-1921):
Why did the war break out:
-The Civil War which broke out in 1918, allowed Lenin and the Bolsheviks to
firmly establish their Communist rule by 1921
...
Bolshevik seizure of power in October started it
...
The deterioration of the shaky Bolshevik law and order
...
Lenin wanted a war, allow him to wipe out his enemies in one brutal struggle
rather than years of harassment
...
Lenin followed his own policies and refused coalitions fervently, so it was
inevitable he would come into conflict with other parties
...
Failure of Bolsheviks to solve food problems, fighting sometimes around
that
...

-Early 1920's, workers brought under military discipline like soldiers, not
allowed to question orders or negotiate pay/work conditions and severely
punished for poor workmanship and not meeting production targets
...

-Political Commissars attached to units to ensure loyalty, Ex-Tsarist officers
trained rank-and-file men
...

-Conscripted soldiers to build the army to a large size
...


The White forces:
-Made up of monarchists and liberals, a majority of White's wanted a Tsarist
regime back, these became the “White Forces”
...

-In the Baltic region, another White army established itself under General
Nikolai Yudenich, a highly successful WWI general
...

-Another White Army, formed in Siberia under Admiral Kolchak, a successful
land-officer who had fought in the Russo-Japanese war, and he declared himself
“Supreme Ruler of Russia”
...

-Allies argued that Russians had accepted support economically and military
from Allies, and then Bolsheviks pulled out out of war and write off foreign
loans
...

-Soon after treaty was signed, Allied troops occupied the port of Mummak in
the Arctic and Archangel in the White sea
...

-Lenin also had foreign assets in Russia frozen, which had a negative impact
...

-These interventions largely failed because:
1
...

2
...

3
...

4
...

-Only successful operation was the Baltic States independence by British
warships, which freed the states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
...

-Journeyed to Vladivostok with the Trans-Siberian railway, and intended to join
with the Western Allied forces to gain independence
...

-Many other constituencies fought for independence from Russian rule, such as
the Fins, Poles and Ukrainians
...

-Wanted to create a society based on local organisations of peasants
...

-Under-equipped/under-funded, and great tensions within group led to defeat
...

-Tried a military coup in Moscow and failed
...

-Also tried to ally with the White forces, and also assassinated a German
ambassador, Von Mirbach to try bring Germany against the Bolsheviks
...

The Crucial year-1919:
Kolchak's campaign: Starting from January 1919, Kolchack had advanced 200
miles by April from the East, and also had the support of 30,000 foreign troops
...

Deniken's campaign: This was based in South-East Russia, and despite support
from Kolchak's campaign, he changed his mind in March and attacked the Red
Army that had just invaded the Donbass region
...


Yudenich's campaign: Launched an attack on Communist controlled Petrograd,
despite needing more men and having little foreign support
...

-In the face of so many offensives, foreign troops pulled out of Russia, as did
the Czech legion, and the Whites retreated
...

The Russo-Polish war, 1920-21:
-In 1919, the Polish forced entered Western Ukraine and captured it's capital of
Kiev
...

-Lenin hoped the Polish workers would rise up and join the Russians, but
instead saw them as foreign aggressors
...

-More importantly, it stopped any other attempt to spread Communism to other
countries
...

-Apart from their obvious desire to overthrow the Bolsheviks, they were not
bound together by a single aim
...
This allowed the Reds to take them out separately
...

-Whites were too reliant on supplies from abroad, which seldom arrived in
sufficient quantities
...

-Fought with other anti-Communist forces (e
...

Red strengths:
-Remained in control of a concentrated central area of Western Russia which
they were able to defend by maintaining their inner communications and supply

lines
...

-Reds had the strongest hold over the individual centres of Russia, gave them
access to munitions/resources that were denied to the Whites
...

-Red Army was brilliantly organised and led by Trotsky
...

-Grain requisition in Russia via War Communism also allowed them to feed the
people, which kept their support for the Reds going
...

-Trotsky created the elite Red Army, numbering around 5 million at the end of
the war thanks to conscription
...

-Had political Commissars assigned to Russian Army units to make sure they
followed Trotsky's orders and remained loyal to the Communists
...

Effect of Civil War on Bolsheviks:
Toughness: he Civil War had a great impact on the Bolshevik party (renamed
the Communist party in 1919)
...

Authoritarianism: The idea that the military aspects of the Bolshevik
government and its dictatorship -like qualities make it strong and decisive
...
The authority of the
Sovnarkom because indistinguishable from the rule of the Party Committee,
which was served by the Secretariat
...

-14th December, Army seized all banks, and were declared to be owned by the
Communist government
...

-Under the new regime, landowners lost their estates
...

-December 1917-June 1918, Russia experienced State Capitalism, which
recognized workers control of their factories
...

-Industrial production slumped, as the economy operated mainly on a barter
system, where shortages in essential goods produced a flourishing black market
...

What was War Communism:
-A Supreme Economic Council was forced to run the economy
...

By 1920, around 37,000 businesses had been nationalised
...

-Grain surpluses was seized from peasants
...

-A steep decline in the use of money
...

-The use of terror, slave labour and seizure of goods and grain by the State
...

-Rations are totally inadequate and the black market flourished
...

-Towns/cities fed by “Ural-Siberian method” of grain requestioning, groups of
committed Communists go into the countryside and seize grain from peasants
...

-Factories depended on manpower, conscription of Red Army/searching for
food/ escape the civil war caused the population of Petrograd and Moscow to
drop by ½ between 1918-1921
...

-For Lenin, War Communism kept peasants in line, difficult to do, as
conservative class resisted Bolshevik government
...

-This was not true, peasants simply weren't making it until the main purchaser,
the government, paid a fairer price for it
...
Kulaks in particular
targeted
...

-Still less grain was produced, Bolsheviks still persisted grain hoarding was the
basic problem
...

-Grain harvests between 1920-1921 produced less that ½ then harvests in 1913
...

-The Bolsheviks blamed the Kulaks and the Whites, but accepted foreign
assistance
...

-Over 5 million people starved to death because of it
...

-Many Bolsheviks believed it was not only a temporary measure for an extreme
situation, but also that it represented true revolutionary Communism
...
The centralisation of industry
2
...
The squeezing of peasants

-As a short-term measure, it had produced the results that Lenin wanted, but
now it was deeply unpopular and needed to be ended, as there were outbreaks
of resistance in Russia
...
Industrial production, a fraction of pre-WWI levels
...
War Communism/Grain requestioning leads to peasants uprising all across
Russia
...
Tambov uprising so serious large amounts of the Red Army forces deployed
there to keep the peace
...
First signs of major famine was appearing
...

-End of 1920, Mensheviks begin increasing their support in local Soviets
...

The Krondstadt Rebellion in March 1921:
-When Lenin took power in 1917, one of the most loyal supporters were the
naval base at Kronstadt, home to Revolutionary Baltic Fleet, whose sailors
participated in the 1917 takeover and the Civil War
...
End of Bolsheviks monopoly of power
...
Freedom of speech
...
End of Bolshevik privileges
...
Withdrawal of political commissars
...
Secret Bolsheviks elections to Soviets
...

-Angered by this, Trotsky ordered the Red Army over there to crush the new
“White Agents” instead of “Heroes of the Revolution”
...

-Leaders were shot for being “White revolutionaries” and Cheka hunted down
and killed escaped rebels
...


-Because of this, at the 10th Party Congress in March 1921, Lenin announced an
end to War Communism, to be replaced by the NEP to end famine and lessen
Bolshevik opposition, political control to be made tighter
...

-Grain requisitioning abandoned and replaced by Tax in kind (certain amount
of produce = to a fixed sum of money)
...

-Public markets to be restored
...

-Growth of a new class, “Nepmen”, private traders who could buy and sell
goods
...

-1922, New currency introduced to bring an end to the high level of inflation
...

-Communist party saw this as a betrayal to “Capitalism” and an intense debate
began
...

-All other political parties banned
...

-By 1923, 85% of firms back in private hands
...

-Coal and textile production doubled over the same period
...
Peasants having to pay more for industrial goods than they own
...


The creation of the USSR:
Why did Lenin create the USSR:
-To create a multi-national Communist state; prior to rise of power Russia had
been fragmented with many different nationalities
...

-The USSR sought to abolish these problems by creating republics which were
all part of an overall government structure with representatives sent from each
republic to the Congress of Soviets
...

-Through NEP, relaxed economic control but increased political control
...
This state comprised of:
1
...

2
...

3
...

4
...

-The USSR was the only state with a geographical limitation in it's name, and
by the end of 1945 it would comprise of 15 republics
...

-Areas left under Communist rule still comprised of many nationalities
...

-Senior Committee of the USSR was the People's Commissars (Sovnarkom)
...

-Lenin ruled with complete control over the Communist party with extreme
prestige, from 1921 due to democratic centralism
...

-1917, Cheka created to terrorize foes, 1922 Cheka was replaced by the GPU
(State Political Administration), another political police force
...

-Lenin's USSR was the world's first totalitarian dictatorship

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